Teaching Sustainability in the Chemistry Classroom: Exploring Fuel Cells in Simple Hands-on Experiments with Hydrogen, Sugar and Alcohol

Rebecca Grandrath¹ and Claudia Bohrmann-Linde^1,

¹Department of Chemistry Education, University of Wuppertal, Gaußstr, 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany

Cite this paper:
Rebecca Grandrath and Claudia Bohrmann-Linde. Teaching Sustainability in the Chemistry Classroom: Exploring Fuel Cells in Simple Hands-on Experiments with Hydrogen, Sugar and Alcohol. World Journal of Chemical Education. 2019; 7(2):172-178. doi: 10.12691/wjce-7-2-17

Abstract

Energy transition is one of the main global challenges of this century. To realize it and reach the UN´s ecological sustainability goals the topic sustainable energy and different ways of approaching energy transition have to be taught at school. As fuel cells can play a key role in the energy turnaround, they should be an integral part in chemistry education. Here we present a series of hands-on experiments focusing on alkaline, microbial and direct methanol fuel cells to help pupils understand how fuel cells work.

Keywords:
alkaline fuel cell direct methanol fuel cell microbial fuel cell yeast low-cost materials hands-on experiments digital learning tool education for sustainable development energy transition sustainability

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